#173 A Clockwork What?

For some strange reason I picked up my copy of A Clockwork Orange and read the author's note that accompanied the 1986 re-release of the novel.  In the note, two things popped out at me.  1) He was surprised that his work lasted longer than a few years, as most literary works tended to dribble toward obscurity after being published.  2) American publishers refused to publish all 21 chapters of his original novel.  Instead, the big NY publisher responsible for A Clockwork Orange (Ballantine Books - part of Random House) only published 20 chapters, thinking the last chapter was not needed.  In his note Burgess defended his reasons for the 21st chapter and condemned American publishing for its excessive pride, its audacity to take a work of art and change it simply because they had the power to do so.

This is an old story, and most likely is only one of a thousand.  But this hit home with me considering my current struggle to self publish my own works.  I chose to avoid the big publishing houses because I felt they took a large piece of the financial pie because they had rigged the game so heavily in their favor that they could demand writers to sign less-than-worthy contracts.  But that was only a partial truth.  On top of that, they changed the art themselves.  Against the artist's will.

That is unforgivable.

Burgess recites in his note the reasons he allowed this to happen.  As it was in the 1960's, prominent writers did not make much money.  Financially he needed what he could get, and in the wake of Kubrick's film, he had only one opportunity to publish his book in the states.  For financial reasons, he took that opportunity.  This is a simple case of the big publishing houses flexing their muscles, a right they definitely had considering the landscape of publishing in the 1960s.

But things have changed.  Considerably.  The big publishing houses have enjoyed the leverage they've had over the years because writers had no way to get their stories to readers without them.  Writers had no power.

But now we do.  Writers can tell their stories (all 21 chapters) without a large company changing it.  I just wish Anthony Burgess were alive to see the shift in power.  The true liberation of the writer.

BTW, so dramatic for a Wednesday evening... It's because the US play Germany today.  I'm on edge!